12 Must-Watch Climbing Films

• Runtime: 1h 40min
• Director: Peter Mortimer, Josh Lowell
  
• Available to purchase on: YouTube

In this film cameras follow Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson as they take on the staggering challenge of free-climbing Yosemite's most formidable rock formation.

• Runtime: 1h 40min
• Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
• Available to purchase on: Amazon, Google Play

A stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of free solo climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream:scaling the face of the world’s most famous rock — the 3,200-foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park — without a rope. Renowned filmmakers E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin capture the death-defying climb with exquisite artistry and masterful, vertigo-inducing camerawork.

• Runtime: 22mins
• Director: Josh Lowell, Peter Mortimer
• Available to watch on: RedBull TV

Completing Patagonia's Fitz Roy Traverse, a journey across seven peaks and 4,000m of vertical climbing, is one of alpinism's most elusive achievements. Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold are world-class sport climbers, but are they ready for this?

• Runtime: 1hr 38min
• Director: Peter Mortimer, Nick Rosen
• Available to watch on: Amazon

In the shady campgrounds of Yosemite valley, climbers carved out a counterculture lifestyle of dumpster-diving and wild parties that clashed with the conservative values of the National Park Service. And up on the walls, generation after generation has pushed the limits of climbing, vying amongst each other for supremacy on Yosemite's cliffs. "Valley Uprising" is the riveting, unforgettable tale of this bold rock climbing tradition in Yosemite National Park: half a century of struggle against the laws of gravity and the laws of the land.

• Runtime: 51mins
• Director: Ken Etzel, Chelsea Jolly
  
• Available to watch on: YouTube

The film will trace the redpoint—which transformed rock climbing from an engineering problem into a brilliant test of mental and physical strength—from its origins with a ragtag bunch of tights-wearing revolutionaries in rural Bavaria, to its golden era with Wolfgang Güllich, to its new ideal in the German phenom Alex Megos as he battles to unlock new levels of human potential.

• Runtime: 21mins
• Director: Teresa Hoerl
• Available to watch on: YouTube

CHOICES is the portrait of an exceptional sportswoman who is not afraid to make decisions and who approaches her life as she approaches her climbing projects - as willing to compromise as necessary and as uncompromisingly as possible: Steph Davis.

• Runtime: 42mins
• Director: Paul Diffley
• Available to watch on: Amazon

Scotland in winter is an arena where mountaineers pit their skills against exacting climbs often in ferocious conditions. It is respected by climbers around the world. Distilled examines what makes the climbing here so potent.

Andy Cave first climbed in Scotland as a teenager. This was the start of a lifelong journey for Andy, which took him from the depths of a Yorkshire coal mine to the peaks of the Himalayas. As the story unfolds we see dramatic footage of Andy climbing some of Scotland's classic and most challenging winter routes in the full spectrum of conditions that Scotland's mountains can conjure.

Distilled is a celebration of Scottish winter climbing and a poignant profile of a life spent in the mountains.

• Runtime: 48mins
• Director: Paul Diffley, Chris Alstrin
• Available to watch on: Amazon

The climbing is tough, painful and bloody. Two climbers from England, Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall, set out to explore this world and climb the world's hardest off width. They complete a brutal two-year training regime, mostly spent hanging upside down in a suburban Sheffield basement, before embarking on a tour of the USA. The tour culminates in the first ascent of the ultimate off width test piece, Century Crack, the world's hardest off width.

• Runtime: 39mins
• Director: Matt Pycroft
• Available to watch on: YouTube

‘Mirror Wall’, the debut feature film from Coldhouse Collective, follows Leo approaching his latest expedition with a reconsidered mentality and attitude.

Following the death of his close friend Sean ‘Stanley’ Leary and trying to balance potentially dangerous situations with the responsibilities of parenthood - Leo is left leading a team of determined, talented but ultimately inexperienced young guns up one of the tallest big walls in the world.

• Runtime: 52mins
• Director: Nic Good
• Available to watch on: Google Play

From the breathtaking orange granite of Namibia to the lush red sandstone of South Africa, Africa has some of the most remarkable and death-defying climbing routes in the world. Beautiful and at times nail-bitingly dramatic, Africa Fusion follows professional free-climbers Alex Honnold and Hazel Findlay as they travel around the continent tackling some of the largest and most challenging rock faces the continent has to offer.

• Runtime: 18mins
• Director: Bernardo Giménez
• Available to watch on: YouTube

What it takes to climb the world’s first 9c? Let’s find out in Silence, a movie by Bernardo Giménez. It shows what preceded the afternoon of September 3, 2017 when Adam Ondra, a professional rock climber and currently one of the best climbers in the world, made a little piece of climbing history when he climbed his project in the spectacular Hanshelleren Cave in Norway. The route, later named Silence, received a new grade of 9c and became the hardest route in the world.

• Runtime: 53mins
• Director: Paul Diffley, Chris Prescott
• Available to watch on: Amazon,Vimeo

Redemption: The James Pearson Story tells the controversial story of one of the World's best trad climbers, Englandʼs James Pearson. After a dramatic rise to become one of the top climbers in the UK, controversy surrounding the grading of his routes left him feeling ostracised from the climbing scene. The film tells James’ story and follows his return to the UK as he faces his demons and looks to redeem his place within the UK climbing community.